Performer as sound source:
interactions and mediations in the recording studio and in the field
Abstract
In this paper, the author
takes particular interest in the collection of sound material from musical
instruments (for use in both acousmatic and mixed works) and how the composer
manages creative intent and concepts while collaborating with a performer.
Interactions at this stage ultimately impact upon the sound material collected
as well as the final composition. The frontier for exchange during these
composer/performer encounters enables collaborative work to flourish – but what
are the optimum conditions for a successful recording session? Is there a
requisite limit or a bare minimum on how prescriptive one should be as a
composer when directing the performer in order to avoid confining the creative
possibilities of one’s own imagination or the performer’s own input? And how
does one navigate the same situation cross-culturally with foreign and ethnic
instruments where unfamiliar performance practice traditions
and language barriers may exist?
It is common to interact with
object sound sources (eg. keys, coins, slinky etc…) in an exploratory fashion,
prizing out unusual gestures and textures while always on the look out for
those happy accidents that might lend themselves well to the transformation
process in the studio. With instrumental sound sources, where a performer is
involved, the same exploratory activity may not be immediately possible and we
must therefore effectively communicate to the performer our request for
specific experimentation with sound types and timbres. Approaches to this
activity differ from composer to composer and modes of collaboration between
composer and performer subsequently change as a result. How we, as composers,
conduct this sound capturing process is led ultimately by what we want to work
with in the studio. With the use of composer interviews, existing repertoire
and previous noteworthy collaborations I am aim to propose, and distinguish
between, the following modes of collaboration:
q
Instructive/directional: The composer is prescriptive in outlining how and
what the performer is to play.
q
Explorative/interactive: Details of material remain somewhat unspecified. Some
loose ideas and concepts may be discussed beforehand. Contributions from both
sides allow a creative exchange to flow.
q
Unstructured: An open session where the performer is given free
reign/carte blanche to decide what to play. A typical example of this is when a
performer demonstrates extended techniques specific to their instrument – the
composer acts as a listener and thus learns directly from this process as to
what the available sound possibilities are.
Two further distinctive
situations are worthy of discussion:
q
The composer becomes
the performer. The composer
experiments with an instrument that they have no formal training on as a means
of generating sounds. This also applies to situations where the composer
performs or plays with objects (not instruments as such) often in
unconventional ways.
q
Adapting to source. The composer adapts to a sound source or performer.
On-the-fly field recordings (eg. recording environmental sounds, street
performers etc…) where the composer cannot intrude upon or affect the sounding
outcome. All adaptations here refer to technical considerations eg. Position,
microphone handling and volume control on field recorder).
This paper examines the
authority and instructive role of the composer in the recording studio along
with how one might take ownership of these captured sound materials in future
creative work. Finding oneself
within the material generated by others (sounds, notes, phrases, motifs and
even melody lines), especially from unfamiliar cultures and contexts can be
challenging. This part of the paper draws upon first hand accounts of
collaborating with Milapfest (UK, Indian arts development trust) in building an
online sound archive of Indian musical instruments as part of an ongoing
educational outreach program at Liverpool Hope University. The sound archive
material came to exist as a bi-product of collecting sound material for my own
creative work (two new electroacoustic music works exploring the use of
culturally significant sound material). A significant proportion of this
research project (supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK)
involves individual recording sessions with approximately 25 - 30 instrumentalists
from this highly specialised performance tradition. This raises important
issues regarding cross-cultural exchange and what, as an electroacoustic music
composer, I might achieve sonically from exploring their practice, along with
the question of how and what the performers take away from these encounters.
Within the ‘give and take’ of a cross-cultural collaboration, I am posing the
question of how possible it is to exert one’s creative and personal
compositional voice when considering each different mode of collaboration. As
creative projects evolve, take shape and are eventually performed, how is the
performer’s reception of the final work informed by the early stage
collaboration between composer and performer? The collection of both idiomatic
and unconventional sound materials provides a discussion point within this
discourse, which will be supported by personal perspectives and those from
performers involved in this collaborative process.
